Election 2012: Ron Paul’s Revenge!

What’s
particularly nervy — galling, really — about the idea
that the US ought to be spreading our democraticsystemacross the globe is the fact that we don’t have anything close to
democracy in this country. Nor do we have what the Founders intended
to create: a republic, where the power of the state is limited by
the Constitution. This is underscored every time Americans go to the
polls, where they are confronted with “choices”
determined by lawmakers whose chief interest in life is getting
reelected with as little opposition as possible. These guardians of
the polity have made it virtually impossible for so-called third
parties — i.e. parties not controlled by corporate interests
and foreign lobbyists — to even get on the ballot.

And if you don’t
like this state of affairs, and take action, the State will smack
you right in the face. Take the
case of Richard Winger, the third party expert and
political analyst, editor of Ballot Access News, who,
together with other interested parties, sued the state of California so that all candidates would have an equal right to show their party label on the ballot. With the passage of an “open primary” law, which
effectively abolished third parties, California’s third party
candidates couldn’t even identify themselves on the ballot.
The lawsuit failed, however, and the judge ruled that the plaintiffs
had to pay the court costs of the big corporate moneybags who had
sponsored the “open primary” legislation to being with.
Winger and his fellow third partiers got a bill for $243,279.50.

Isn’t
“democracy” wonderful?

Well, no, it isn’t,
not the current American version, which merely serves to legitimize — in a “legal” sense, at any rate — what is
in reality an oligarchy. As this election season dramatized once
again, the differences between the two state-subsidized
state-privileged “parties” is chiefly rhetorical: this
came through loud and clear during the Obama/Romney foreign policy
“debate,” but it’s true on domestic issues as
well. The bipartisan consensus is clear: maintain the
Welfare-Warfare State pretty much as it has existed since the New
Deal, with allowances made for trimming around the edges here and
there. No matter who wins this election, the victor will have to
impose a program of “austerity,” i.e. burdening the
lower and middle classes with new taxes and program cuts, while
granting new opportunities for corruption and cronyism to the
political class and the oligarchs, foreign as well as domestic.

Libertarians are not
small-‘d’ democrats: we don’t believe in the
efficacy or legitimacy of the system — but we don’t (or
shouldn’t) disdain it. For this is the one concession an
otherwise authoritarian-minded political class must make in order to
continue their system of “legalized” thievery and mass
murder. They must ask, if only symbolically, for the consent of the
governed — what Ayn Rand called “the sanction of the
victim.”

But we don’t
have to be victims: we can utilize this chink in the armor of the
State to drive a stake through its rotten heart — because any
and all weapons in the battle for liberty must be in our arsenal.
Yet we also should have no illusions: everyone saw how the GOP
leadership, in league with the Romneyites, stole a good half of Ron
Paul’s delegates to the national convention. It was such a
brazen display of thievery that the Republican governor of Maine —
where arguably the most egregious rip-off took place — refused to attend the Tampa coronation.

And it isn’t
just about the Paulians. Every dissident tendency in the country has
been silenced by repressive ballot access laws which give the
oligarchic parties ample “legal” ammunition to keep
outsiders off the ballot. Previously, Democratic party lawyers practically
followed Ralph Nader around the country as he tried to attain ballot
status, suing to keep him off as soon as he qualified and all too
often succeeding. The Republicans targeted Gary Johnson in the same way this
year. A more disgusting display of “legal”
repression” has never even occurred in such bastions of
“democratic” authoritarianism as Belarus and Putin’s
Russia. Indeed, it is easier for a political party to attain
national ballot status in Russia today than it is for the
Libertarian party or the Green party to get on the ballot in, say,
Pennsylvania.

Congressional
districts are so gerrymandered into shapes which give the incumbent
a job for life that we might as well make the office appointive, or
even hereditary. That way, the American political class can confer
on itself all the titled magnificence and glitz of its model and
progenitor: the British aristocracy.

In the face of a
steady assault of election spending legislation attempting to limit
contributions, and requiring all kinds of “disclosure” —
conceivably subjecting donors to official retribution — the
near invincibility of incumbency is a fact of American political
life in much of the country.

The War Party has two
wings: the Democrats and the Republicans. All others are outsiders,
whose ability to storm the gates is “legally” restricted
by a nearly impassable series of bureaucratic obstacles
designed to keep them out while still maintaining the “democratic”
illusion, i.e. the phony two-party system, which is in reality a
single entity.

It is a delicate
operation, in the course of which the political class must walk a
fine line between repression and allowing some degree of free
expression. This year how that line is drawn, and who draws it, is
going to make a big difference — and perhaps a decisive one.

There’s nothing
like an election to show up the essential fraudulence of the
democratic system, particularly how it’s practiced in America.
Nothing makes this point clearer than the Republican voter
suppression campaign, which is designed to keep African-Americans,
Latinos, and others from voting. Aside from the ugly racial
implications of this deplorable effort, one can kind of see the
Republicans’ point: after all, with a candidate so widely and
intensely disliked, even by his own supporters, what else can they
try? Asking people for all kinds of identification at the polls, and
putting partisan zealots on guard asking people to
identify themselves, is straight out hooliganism. Did you think the
Romneyites were above that?

As I write, we don’t
know who will win this presidential election, but I made my
prediction long ago and I’m sticking to it. I even
half-seriously averred that, by nominating a complete nonentity, the
Republicans were deliberately throwing the election. Romney’s
candidacy postponed the ideological blood feud that’s going to
break out when he goes down to a well-earned defeat, but the Karl
Rove/Fox News grand poobahs of the GOP can’t delay
it indefinitely. Just add the Ron Paul vote to the Republican column,
the day after the President declares victory, and see what you come
up with. Most of Paul’s voters stayed home on election day, or
else voted for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian standard-bearer this
time around.

And that, I predict,
will make all the difference.

When the President
spoke of voting as “revenge” the other day, the wimpish
girlish Republicans immediately started up a chorus of whining —
one reason why they’re such losers, and why they deserve to
lose. Yet I was heartened to hear Obama say it, not only because
revenge is such a major (albeit unacknowledged) factor in politics,
but because it’s particularly appropriate this election year,
and even more so from my own ideological perspective. Because what
we’ll see, this Election Day, might justifiably be called Ron
Paul’s revenge, and, as Ralph Cramden would put it:

“How sweet it
is!”

Okay, I’m
posting this on Election Day, before the results are in: tune in
here for an update after we know who won, and by how much, to see me
either exult in the sheer accuracy of my prophecy, or else eat crow.

Update: It’s
8:13 pm PST, and the President has been reelected. Once again, the
neocons have dragged the GOP down to defeat. Netanyahu placed
his bet on the wrong horse. In spite of soaring
unemployment, a collapsing economy, and widespread disenchantment
with the incumbent, the Republicans still managed to lose.

Why?

Conservatives will
claim it’s because Romney stood for nothing — and that’s
true in terms of domestic policy. He reversed himself on every major
domestic issue, from health care to abortion and tax policy. But on
foreign policy he did stand for something: a huge increase
in the military budget in spite of our looming bankruptcy,
unconditional support for Israel on each and every issue, and war
with Iran. This was the main dividing line between the Ron Paulians
and the Romneyites, and the main reason why no endorsement from Paul
(the elder) was forthcoming. Given the closeness of the election in
several key states, particularly Ohio — the state that put the
President over the top — support from Paul’s voters
would have made the difference. Ron got over 113,000 votes there
in the GOP primary.

Author: Justin Raimondo

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].

While I regularly enjoy Justin Raimondo's articles, his claim that the "Republican voter suppression campaign" which I assume refers to voter ID laws, are attempts by Republicans "designed to keep African-Americans, Latinos, and others from voting" is erroneous in my opinion and something of a bizarre statement.

Does Justin Raimondo want to have American citizens' votes (of whatever party) canceled out by votes from illegal aliens? Does he want people to be able to vote 2 or 3 times? Is asking people to show ID before voting really that onerous?

Furthermore, in my opinion, the idea that Republicans are so racist and Democrats are so wonderful is a far cry from the truth. In fact, there are any number of racists in the Democratic party and not just white ones, there are plenty of black and Hispanic racists as well.

I don't know if it's a general Libertarian view that nothing should be done to stop voter fraud but I disagree with it.

jrs

"Is asking people to show ID before voting really that onerous?"

It depends on several things, for one many people don't have ID (I'm not sure the average middle class person is a good standard to use, many of the poor don't even have bank accounts to write a check from, something the middle class can't fathom). But secondly it also it depends on how it's done. But really all forms of opression depend on how they are enforced. Yes, it can absolutely be done in a way that is intimidating to many people I think.

I also think that voting machines are a great fraud danger than ID, but that is another story.

Mike Ehling

Another group that can have ID problems is college students, who got their drivers' licenses while living with their parents but who want to vote from their college addresses, which they have a right to do. Alright, some may say that they should vote by absentee ballot at their parents' addresses, but they aren't required to, and requiring photo ID from their college addresses is a definite burden.

Strider55

. . . requiring photo ID from their college addresses is a definite burden.

How on earth is that a burden?? Everyone affiliated with a college — student, faculty, staff, etc. — has a photo ID. It's what allows them to check out books from the library, swim at the pool, or use any other facility on campus. Heck, my student ID had to be validated with a new sticker every semester just to show I was still enrolled.

At any rate, college students should not be allowed to vote at their college address unless they register to vote in that county. Otherwise they should vote absentee back home. (That's how it works in the military, and it works just fine.) Any normal person can exercise either option with minimal effort. Anyone too lazy — or too hung over from another episode of binge drinking — to do so has no business voting.

GUEST 1

The issue here centers on the behaviour of Republican Governors last minute effort to change the rules for election. People, who have been voting for years with minimal restrictions find themselves ,the last minute, forced to produce new ID's that require additional time and effort. Had the republicans instituted such edicts early in the game, they would have not been called on it. At this stage in the election, they appear ,rightly so, gerrymandering the system.

RickR30

The article he links to refers to state legislatures messing around with early voting.

Voter IDs laws should be in place everywhere. It is ridiculous that Democrats expect anyone who shows up to be able to vote no questions asked. No country on earth does that. Even countries that require you to vote expect all sorts of paperwork and jumping through hoops. Only in America do our political parties have constituencies made up of foreigners who make demands, pay off politicians, and are even supposed to have the "right" to vote here. Absurd.

rosemerry

illegal aliens??? US citizens who vote democratic, you mean.Voter fraud is a NON ISSUE, made up by the Repugs. It has been checked out and is so rare that the whole thing is a farce. People who try it are prosecuted and imprisoned. Please read Greg Palast's "Billionaires and Ballot Bandits" to get the real story.

richard vajs

I have no proof of this – but it was relayed to me by a trusted relative. Anyway, the story is that a "True the Vote" group from Texas traveled to Wisconsin to do "their duty" to harass likely Democrat voters by challenging their voters credentials. To be allowed to hang around the polling place, these Texas vigilantes needed 6 signatures from election officials (split between R and D). Well, Lo and Behold, the "True the Vote" folks had forged credentials. This is too sweet not to be true.

carroll price

I agree with you BDD. I see absolutely nothing wrong or discriminatory about requiring voters to show proof of who they are and where they live etc. I wonder how many anti voter-ID zeolots would willingly accept a check (as payment for services rendered) from a person who refuses to provide some form of proof as to who they are and whether or not they have funds in an account to cover the check. Common sense tell me that not a single one of them would even consider doing so.

paul

i demand to see obama's Id

A. G. Phillbin

The main problem is, among other problems, is that this focus on INDIVIDUAL voter fraud does absolutely nothing to prevent the true potential sources of massive voter fraud — THE COUNTING. Think about it. Most people are not such dedicated electoral partisans that they would actually go out of their way to first inspect the registration lists, then go to the polls and risk signing someone else's name (assuming he knows they aren't voting), and chance going to jail if caught. They would need to be paid for their service to whichever "party," and multiplying that many times is EXPENSIVE. The reason why so little INDIVIDUAL voter fraud has been discovered is that it isn't that important to most people (they gain nothing), and not cost effective to interested parties (politicians and their "parties"). It is so much more cost effective to hack voting machines, or fill the boards of elections with partisan hacks. As the old saying, attributed to both Stalin & Boss Tweed goes: "He who votes determines nothing; he who counts the votes determines everything." Also, why would you trust some $85-$100/day volunteer to check people's IDs impartially and competently?

camus10

BDD have you seen any reports on voter suppression by Greg Palast. & Craig Unger. There is no question Paul was subverted at the gop coronation. Do you need any further proof that Karl Rove and the TP machine banked by the likes of Koch Adelson banksters remains at large legitimizing the criminal oligarchs

Chris Condon

A fine article. Maybe too pessimistic. Admittedly the political system does not allow for change. But my guess is Washington runs out of money and defaults before too many more years are out. The warfare state is politically secure but economically weak. So is the welfare state. I see a Soviet-style collapse in the not too distant future. When that happens, it's best not to be near huge population centers, except possibly here in Texas.

Anti_Govt_Rebel

Washington ran out of money decades ago. That's why there are deficits every year. There won't be a default in the sense of formally filing for bankruptcy. The default is happening right now, every day, as the spending goes on as if there's no tomorrow, and the phony printed "dollars" are flooding the country, debasing the "money" already in circulation.

RickR30

Exactly my thoughts. Had the Republicans had a candidate who was a) different from Obama in some meaningful way b) remotely informed about issues c) not a completely clueless rich pig, they could have won handily. After all, there was no reason for anyone to vote for Obama unless they did so because of his skin color or the usual abortions/homosexual nonsense. Obama's record has been dismal but the Republicans gave the American people no alternative, they just had to have some establishment puppet candidate. There was absolutely no reason to vote for Romney, so the incumbent won easily and without the drama that the media had hoped for.

When will Republicans learn that nominating rich fools is a sure way to lose- locally and nationally. But then again, who cares? Republicans are as dead to me as Democrats. Now is the time for third parties to rise to the occasion.

Poor America. 4 more years of deficit, death, destruction, wars, T&A abuses, government intrusion, disappearance of rights, joblessness, foreclosures, Obama's death panel and it's kill Americans no questions asked list, militarization of local law enforcements, etc. Now what about Iran and Syria though? I'll give it till Monday and that's all we'll hear until baruch obama and his administration cave in to the demands. I can only imagine the phone calls from the bosses in tele aviv. "alright boy, we left you alone during the campaign, now it's time to deliver."

The only good thing about the election result: Moth Romney's neocon plagued foreign advisory panel lost, sheldon adelson lost, and best of all netenyahoo lost.

sherban

When i read "rich pig" i stopped to read and gave you my vote.In my view a rich=a pig,and who wrote this is right in everything,this is the base.

"Congressional districts are so gerrymandered into shapes which give the incumbent a job for life that we might as well make the office appointive, or even hereditary."

The proof of this observation is the fact that public approval of the US Congress is either in the single digits or very close to it, yet the incumbents remain in power. Astounding!

rosemerry

Netanyahu backed the wrong horse, but Obama is unlikely to stand up to him.One can but hope!!

Anti_Govt_Rebel

i'm not holding my breath!

Oswaldwasalefty

Obama got 69.5 million votes last time around in '08. As I write this (about 4 a.m. Eastern, Wednesday) the CNN vote counter has him at about 57.5 million votes and counting. So he appears headed for millions of less votes this time around. A pitiful showing against such an awful candidate. It would be difficult to come up with a more vulgar patrician candidate than Romney. It's not hard to figure out why he didn't do as well this time around. Most people are making less than they were four years ago, while their cost of living continues to sky rocket and they struggle to deal with a debt burden they will never be able to repay. While Obama has shown a lot of love for Wall Street and the Pentagon, most Americans have seen little or no relief come their way since '08. That's why a candidate as bad as Romney is even close in this election.

"Revenge" is the term to be thinking of when it comes to U.S. Iran policy. They overthrew a U.S. backed regime and took the U.S. embassy prisoner. The only time Washington got out the brass knuckles was by proxy via Saddam Hussein and the Iran-Iraq War. Much in the same way Washington used China and Cambodia to fight Vietnam post-1975. Worked very well, and by 1993 Vietnam surrendered and "agreed" to pay part of the odious debts accumulated by the hated Saigon regime. Hasn't worked as well with Iran. But Iran is a resource exporter and in a better position to resist than Vietnam was.

So this is why I don't care much for this "It's all about Israel" line. I don't have the slightest doubt that there are odious debts accumulated by the Shah regime, that Euro-American bankers are still counting to this day, that the current regime refuses to repay, and even refuses to negotiate over. If Iran were to negotiate a settlement of these debts, then Iran would not be attacked. This is how the Empire works. Show respect and pay tribute, you'll be spared the brass knuckles.

Sam

Bravo. You were right.

abe

I hope that with this election Holy Joe Lieberman is GONE forever! I would enjoy a piece on israel first/ America last Joe. Goodbye Joe you disgusting filth.

Watson

Lieberman is retiring at the end of his term in January.

Kolya_Krassotkin

Going to stay with cousin Avigdor on the West Bank?

richard vajs

One apparent truth – the Republican Party is becoming a dinosaur – it represents the crabby, racist old white people with money, who believe that they have the right to be privileged over the blacks, Mexicans, single women, "tree-huggers", gays, Muslims, etc.. The underdog is now on top and it is going to stay that way.
I am Life member of the Libertarian Party who longs to go back to the old Libertarian Party that embraced equal opportunity for all Americans and was not a waterboy for the GOP Establishment. Until the Libertarian Party quits running old worn-out Republicans like Barr and Johnson who never can get up the courage to denounce the status quo "privileged class", I will continue to vote for outsiders like Nader and Stein who do have that courage.

McGuckin

The Democratic Party is truly a strange coalition of groups that have nothing in common with each other.

Moreover, what if Native Born White Americans rebell against their race-replacement-the open intent of of post-1965 Immigration policy? Did you account for this? And when they do what do you intend to do about it? What does the crabby old race traitor Ron Paul intend to do about

it? The Democratic Party is openly highly racialized. Native Born White Americans will play the same game of highly racialized politics.

?

masmanz

You should say Native Born White American Men — sadly, for you, the women voted for the other side.

McGuckin

The percentage of Native Born White American Women who are eligible to vote and actually voted for the war criminal Kenyan foreigner is actually a very small percentage of the total Native Born White American Female population.

What unites the Democratic Party freak show of trendy White Liberals and the various post-1965 racial fifth columns is an intense antipathy towards the Native Born White American Population. Leftists-Liberals should not be shocked that there is rapidly growing revolt-against a very public and deliberate policy of race-replacement…this policy is creating its own backlash.

richard vajs

McGuckin,
The truth is that Archie Bunker's daughter had to put him in a nursing home – you need to let him go.

McGuckin

Richard Vajas

Rootless cosmopolitanism…is that the best you can come up with? Rootless Cosmopolitans such as yourself are a minority in the Democratic Party freak show coalition. In the end, the high fertility post-1965 racial fifth columns will dispose of the baby boom rootless cosmopolitans. Given the open antipathy of the ungratefull rootless cosmopolitans such as you and Noam Chomsky…you shouldn't be the leas bit shocked that the antiwar movement is viewed as a cabal of freaks….and that millions of Native Born White Americans are becoming racially radicalized….the Golden Dawn is the model for millions of European People. It is safe to say that antiwar movement during the Jorge Bush era gave us the Kenyan Foreigner….with a blank check to nuke Iran.

richard vajs

Rootless Cosmopolitan? – what a strange thing to call me – a Life member of the Libertarian Party who lives in rural West Virginia, raises goats and makes his own wine (dandelion and elderberry) – nothing very cosmopolitan about any of that. And I am too old to be a Baby Boomer. And I never voted for Obama – I voted for Ralph Nader last time and Jill Stein this time. But I am honored for being paired with Noam Chomsky. Thanks. As for the rootless part, Jesus warned that those wanting to follow him will not even have the homes given to the birds or the foxes. If racial hatred is patriotic, I'll never salute that flag.

masmanz

…And even a much smaller percentage voted for Mitt Romney.

RickR30

Democrats, and all the "minorities" you mention are hardly the underdog or in some way underrepresented, nor do they constitute somehow the road to victory. True, the Republicans (like Democrats) have chosen to represent the 1% and have declared war on the Middle Class. But the Republicans do so much more openly and brazenly. The Democrats still benefit from their historical mythology that they don't represent the 1% when in fact they do.

McGuckin

The nonwhites that comprise the majority demographic of the Democratic Party have installed a war criminal and corporate whore back into imperial rule for four more years.The minority White members of the Democratic Party have given the Dear Leader Kenyan a blank check to commit mass slaughter in Iran..in the name of legalized homosexual marriage. You see,for Liberal White Democrats, mass murder is now quite alright since homosexuals can serve openly in the "US" Military. The Democratic Party is a freakshow coalition. How is it gonna work out with Gay submarine commander Cliffy and his Muslim "American" submariner crew…..

Generalissimo X

please see my post below. you are the person i'm talking about. you speak of obama as if bush and cheney were some populists bent on peace. i hope every day is sheer torture for you for the next 4 years. every. day. you and your archaic, laughable if it wasn't so sad world view.

McGuckin

General X
Bush and Chenney should be put on trial for crimes against humanity..along with Kenyan war criminal in the White House. But the fact of the matter is the phony antiwar activists put away their protest signs immediately after the war criminal Kenyan foreigner was elected back in 2008. What passes for a antiwar movement on 25.A in Stony Brook and downtown Port Jefferson on a Saturday morning are a bunch of nuts who support the war criminal Kenyan foreigners policy in Syria,Libya and Iran..these are the antiwar activist…all three of them..holding antiwar signs across from Seann Hannitys pinhead supporters.

Generalissimo X

well i won't disagree with you statements. but sorry man, i can't get into your white born america crap. and i'm a wasp born in the 60's. obama's foreign policy is awful, despicable even. but it pales in comparison to the crimes and lies of bush and co. pales. if romney had won, israel would be probably already bombing iran.

McGuckin

As the late Alex Cockburn has written many times..the Democratic Party are very intelligent managers of the Empire.. but this really doesn't. buy us anytime for there is no serious antiwar movement. The antiwar movement has given the corporate whore,war criminal Kenyan Foriegner a blank check to nuke Iran at his discretion. Russia is on a launch on warming mode.

Smithboy

Yesterday i watched All The Kings Men and thought back to the Bush/Cheney years of intimidation and treason. I felt I owed Obama my vote for pulling our fighting forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan( in the near future.)

El Tonno

> pulling our fighting forces out of Iraq

You misspelled "being unable to renegotiate the SOFA with Maliki The Strongman and thus being forced to leave earlier than intended"

The more it changes the more it stays the same sounds tripe until one finally accepts the realities of the actions/policies/views that have become a reality. for better or for worse it is tied to the dogma of race as in the parlance of a "chosen people" in the form of religious or political beliefs and has been in practice for centuries.

Credit Cecil Rhodes the English gold mine magnate for its present and continuing practice as he expressed it…….

" I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race…added to which the absorption of the GREATER PORTION OF THE WORLD UNDER OUR RULE SIMPLY MEANS THE END OF ALL WARS."

As an addendum to the above one must not forget that the English during their tenure of empire created the following present "states" Iraq, Palestine, [ Israel ] Kuwait, Bahrein, Yemen, the Sudan, Nigeria, Gambia, Zimbabwe, and other African states, in addition to Belize, Canada, Burma, India, Pakistan, and even Northern Ireland. Its the same old story a fight for…

RobertB

There's an article in Signal Magazine, the propaganda magazine of the Third Reich, I think it's from 1940, and the theme of the article is that Germany has brought Peace to Europe, I suppose because everyone that had been invaded had surrendered. Just depends what your perspective is … and if you're the one on top.
One could also note that the main criteria for determining a 'trouble spot' in the world is where some Empire or another arbitrarily penciled in lines on a map and defined the region as a nation or a territory. Because the British happened to be on top at the time, we could say they're the bad guys but they were really just doing what everybody has done throughout history. It all depends upon if you're on top or not, at least for the time being. At least they brought some sort of order and structure to the world and the idea that society best functions if people follow the rules. Many of the places they have vacated and where their influence has dissipated over time have returned to chaos, which seems to be the norm for society; the only difference is how long it takes. In the last generation, the creeping occupation of the homeland by migration signals the final collapse of the old Empires, whether North America or Europe, and others will take their place.
Fundamentally, beyond race, wars are really a function of economic and territorial demands of a population; in that sense they mirror the laws of nature. That's why wars will never end, and the best hope one can have is that they live their life in the right place in a period in history when a lull takes place.

RickR30

Any thoughts on who's going to replace Clinton? I hate to think about what other idiot slave of the neocons the Democratic establishment is going to find digging in the trash.

carroll price

A good guess as to who will replace Hillary would be Joe Lieberman who retires from the senate at the end of his present term. Joseph possess all the neccessary qualifications. He is a Washington insider, PINAC adores him, is a certified war monger, and trusted member of the Tribe. What more could anyone ask?

RyanSmurfy

People get the government they deserve — now, then, forever.

RickR30

That's particularly true in places where elections are direct and mandatory. In the US where only a fraction of the country votes and where the system is designed to make a majority of the votes meaningless- not so much.

Mr. Mojo

Wrong, the American people have allowed this sham of an electoral system to go on for decades and do nothing about it but keep voting for the same scumbags from the two criminal organizations over and over. Then they wonder why nothing ever changes.

ShadesOfGrey

I'm just disgusted with the entire process. If this economy gets any worse, it will only push the republicans further to the right than where they are already. And when that happens, well – read some history.

McGuckin

You mean Native Born White Americans will very likely become as highly racialized as the Hispanic,Asian ,African…..like the Kenyan war criminal in the White House…and. Muslim racial fifth columns that comprise the treasonous Democratic Party? Tough…Noam Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn should have seen it comming their fanatical support for an open borders-race-replacement immigration policy makes it a complete certainty that there will be a highly racialized Native Born White American backlash. The promotion of a post-1965 race-repacement immigration completely discredits flow what passes as a at best flimsy antiwar movement in the "US". Antiwar activist such as Noam Chomsky. .and Phil Giradi…..at the end of the day…are fools.

El Tonno

Yeah just wait until Native Americans whup Whitey ass.

jenna

The right moved to the left of center, because the republicans could not keep up with the give-aways of the lett. The right had nothing to offer like the democrats. Even Justin will acknowledge it. The right keeps trying to move in and caress the balls of the left, bad idea, the right just loses itself. Fact is the majority of the country is left, which is why Bill Kristol and others are somewhat left, there is no other way to go. Justin loves the left along with most of his followers. The right is done the libertarians will be even more done. No one wants your ideas. Thats all there is.

JLS

I hate to see a second Obama term but I have to admit I'm enjoying the foxnews people's complete shock and disgust. Hahahahahaha….who's unelectable now, assholes?

RobertB

As far as the election results are concerned, it looks like the great unwashed managed to figure out the least-worst choice in an impossible situation: vote for certain war or vote for possible or probable war.
The people favored vagueness, but It would have been better to have a clear-cut choice such as Paul vs Obama, rather than the choice between the fawning and possibly not-so-fawning candidates presented in what has become essentially a one-party state.
I reassert my original comparison: that this election was like the 1940 election when both parties ran a Democrat war candidate with Britain (and others) pulling the strings in the background, the object being to bring US manpower, weapons, and productive capacity into another foreign war, and anyone who opposed it being characterized as traitors or appeasers.

johnc

Sheldon Adelson's 100 million dollar stake in Romney should not be seen as a bet on winning the presidency. It is an investment in the system, and the hard right true believers who form part of the whole. The house always wins.

Bob D

And Sheldon's 100 million will do what was intended. Obomber will think he is triangulating when he starts a war with Iran. And idiot Americans will accept the war easier from Obomber than they would have from Shifty Mitt or "bomb Iran" McCain.

Generalissimo X

all you self identified morons in the GOP..haha. i’m laughing in your stupid faces. you had a chance to get on the ron paul bandwagon, save our republic and DESTROY obama in the election. instead you went with a despicable corporate suit who had nothing to offer the american people except what already happened in 2000-08. he hates the poor, has no idea how to do anything with the economy, the entire GOP platform is beat the democrats. wow. some platform. on social issues you’re 100 years behind the times beating on gays, minorities and anyone who isn’t some “real” american. you people are idiots. the GOP screams about being pro life, not seeing the bald faced hypocrisy of waging pre-emptive illegal wars. some pro life platform. obama is your karma for the awful way you treated ron paul and his supporters. i hope you never win another election. your party has been repudiated again and we all know the machines were flipped to republicans. you still couldn’t win.

now let's get back to our horrendous illegal wars, our mountains of debt and our slavishness to israel. and c'mon barry, keep us out of war with iran. really, that's all i want in the next 4 years.

Canadian

"…c'mon barry, keep us out of war with iran. really, that's all i want in the next 4 years."

Sounds good to me. Of course, if he feels an overpowering urge to be a "war president", then he could attack a real enemy (like Israel) rather than a make-believe one (like Iran).

I read the difficulties of third party candidates element with interest.

Is it required that where a proportion of the voters in a state are required to sign the petition of the third party, they are only allowed to sign one party's petition?

If not is it not possible (and forgive my ignorance as a Brit from the mother country ;D) that in each state a non-partisan organisation can be set up, whereby registered voters are listed who have agreed to sign the petition of ANY prospective party. Have a few local glamour pusses and a few weighter folks agree to front it? Then prospective candidates could go to the organisation, and they would collect the required signatures?

Or….am I off base?

camus10

3party registration

is not the problem. The mainstream media, electoral college, electronic vote switches flipped in close calls is the problem. A system where winner takes all doesnt work. If Paul didnt win by rigged rules, atleast he should be forming the opposition benches. But no, he now becomes irrelevant except in state and municipal legislatures. The system is rigged by two oligarchic parties who sell their loyalty and surrender the nations children to rudderless tyrannical armies serving the israeli likud. All we want are for institutions (banks, courts, schools, police, hospitals) to function. But wo proper open debates and beacuse of open intimidation of dissenting views, absolutely nothing works and we are headed over a financial and Climate driven cliff.

Thanks for the reply. I am aware of those extra elements and also saw the frauds perpetrated in the Rep/Dem conventions. But surely getting on the slate is paramount to generate interest and access, from what JR (and the Ballot Access website) noted above, it seems this is very hard.

That said, I notice that the Libertarian Party got 1% of the vote and boasted of being on the slate in many states (whether officially or as a write in I do not know).

To one and all, I highly recommend reading "The Culture of Critique" by Kevin MacDonald"
It's eye-opening, disturbing, but ties together all your viewpoints and frustrations.

jenna

OH c'mon Justin, time to Gloat. God has finally left the room. Besides, it was all sealed years ago when the third was not born. You always get what you ask for. Be happy, this is what you want.
Hurray for Obama!

jenna

freaking leftists, never happy with anything. God left, what more do you want? Hate God anyway. Who wanted God. Like i said the third wasn't born anyway, call it freedom. God is gone! Free of God, gone…ta da freee be happy…

MoT

How about a water, phone, electric bill?

jjme23

The Sly Fox / Dingo's skewed news corp. con artists will be crying rivers for the next four years.
Roger Ailes the sly fox alpha dingo, along with his pack of skewed news Dingo's O'really,
Heinie, rush bimbo and also rans are fading off into a dark sunset.
Gotta love the fact that their bottom line is being affected as we speak. Many Dingo's will be cast out as nothing more then dead weight as the dynasty crashes down like a controled demolition.

MvGuy

Mr. Raimondo's sober assessment of the Republican's failure in the republican contest is clear eyed. Yes, the ….."Warfare State" was reelected, "Along With Obama"…. That is the good news, and the bad. We AW.com believers were rooting for Obama as per Mr Raimondo's prescription on Oct one, 12 in …["Race for the White House, 2012: Whom to Root For?] but voting our conscience. For Mr. Raimondo, Gary Johnson no doubt, and for me Jill Stein……. Thanks to AW.com for the map and compass………..

jenna

Don't be so pessimistic, it's all for the best. Where would Justin be if war did not exist? Without killing and destruction what would you be doing? Besides, no one loved them anyway. If you did, you would accept them just the way they are. They would be: good enough, but they are not are they? :)

jenna

I can;t stand you fucking morons, you destroyed the line. I can't stand you more than anything.

Justin may not know it yet, but the effect of his writings on the success of the very small minority of ideological NeoCons who have infiltrated Both Parties — has lots of libertarians THINKING. One, some of us (me) think "STARTING THE LP WAS A STRATEGIC MISTAKE" — http://www.dailypaul.com/236042/starting-the-libe…

and now many of us have created the R3VOLution to reband liberty INSIDE the 2-Party Duopoly. Now there is space to "be" a Ron Paul Republican. Soon there will be space to "Be" a Jefferson Democrat. Here is how and why the rebranding of Liberty INSIDE the 2-Party Duopoly is both working and will rule the day… We start by asking a deep question: "What's in a Name?" http://www.dailypaul.com/217383/go-libertarian-or…

guest

That's a myth. Everyone has an i.d. these days. In fact you need a valid i.d. even to register at a homeless shelter.

What's ridiculous is that DemocRats keep insisting that showing an i.d. is a "burden" to minorities when they go to vote… but NOT when they buy alcohol or tobacco, when they cash a paycheck, when they apply for welfare, when they apply for a job, etc.

A. G. Phillbin

What is not a "myth" is that it is very easy to insert partisan hacks into the electoral machinery, and said partisan hacks are likely to scrutinize one "party's" IDs more than the other. Or do you really think election officials, even volunteer clerks and inspectors, are free of partisan bias, or have expertise in ID fraud? Do you really believe that massive numbers of people are faking their identity at the polls? Or is it more likely that real fraud occurs at the level of the VOTE COUNTING, where it is so much more cost effective?

Was it really "Ron Paul's Revenge" that Obama won a 2nd Term in Office? Or, was it that 1) Obaaama-bots didn't learn anything since 2008, and voted for him – AGAIN!, 2) Everyone was just a little more fearful of what a Romney Presidency would be like!, and 3) LATINOS OUTNUMBER WHITES IN AMERICA, and there is a very real prospect, THAT ANOTHER REPUBLICAN WILL NEVER BE ELECTED TO THE PRESIDENCY EVER AGAIN, as Spanish becomes the 1st language of the former USA? (Now, the USSA)

What is most astonishing about these comments is several people defending "Voter ID" laws.

Any person who claims to be a conservative or a libertarian should have a problem with the very idea of government-issued photo ID. If you don't regard with revulsion the State turning what used to be no-photo drivers licenses into de facto national ID cards, scannable bar codes and digitally stored biometric information and all, then you aren't a conservative, you aren't a liberal, and you sure as hell aren't a libertarian.

"Voter ID" laws and the hysteria over alleged voter fraud are simply one of several back-door methods being used by the authoritarians trying to push national ID cards as part of a total surveillance society. Two other examples are the hysteria over underage drinking and the hysteria over immigration enforcement. The term for these things is moral panics.

Government-issued photo ID should be done away with, period. Having to get a license from the State to drive should also be abolished, but until it is, drivers licenses should immediately go back to no-photo licenses without any machine-readable features, and all biometric data currently kept by the government should be deleted and destroyed. The only state with currently acceptable voter registration laws is North Dakota. You should not need a government-issued passport to travel internationally. People need to learn to recognize and automatically reject the moral panics which demagogues stir up to justify photo ID, surveillance cameras, background checks, selective service registration, pet chipping, airport x-rays and pat-downs, etc. This is the conservative position, the liberal position, AND the libertarian position.

Before anyone claiming to be a conservative jumps on the voter-ID bandwagon, ask yourself whether it serves the interest of returning things to the way they used to be/ought to be, or whether it serves the interest of enlarging the State and its total surveillance culture. The answer should be plain.

mtw999

While I agree, generally speaking, with the article:

"Given the closeness of the election in several key states, particularly Ohio — the state that put the President over the top — support from Paul’s voters would have made the difference. Ron got over 113,000 votes there in the GOP primary."

Assumes the 113,000 "votes" all stayed home or went to another candidate. I saw many people in various forums for the past 4-5 months claiming they "supported Dr. Paul but since he was no longer in the race"… blah blah blah, you know the unprincipled finish to that statement.
It would be more accurate to say "…support from Paul’s voters likely could have made the difference…"

If they are as stupid as their statements over the past months suggest, they very likely may have voted for Romney. I try not to wear a tinfoil hat too much so I will leave it at their word they "were" RP supporters…

paul

Why should anyone have to show their Id? Until obama does…hmm

A. G. Phillbin

I hope someone does a detailed analysis of the question that Justin raised in this piece. Where did the Paul voters go (vote Romney, stay home, or vote third party)? If Justin's speculation that the number of Paul supporters lost by Romney is greater than the margin of victory in the key battleground states, then this fact needs to be shoved in the Republican "party's" face. The next piece of analysis would then be WHY the Paulites drifted off? Was it the warmongering, the crude mistreatment of Paul's delegates and voters by the "party," both, or some third reason? This needs to be seriously researched.